Loose ends
by madgirlmuahaha
Summary: The barrier's broken, and Frisk is living a peaceful life with her new family. She still has a huge challenge ahead of her. He has six yellow petals and tends to verbally abuse anyone who dares to even look at him. She's too determined to give up, but she just can't break through to him. Maybe she doesn't have to. Maybe someone else can get to him. Someone who understands him.
1. Chapter 1

**Warning: This contains spoilers for the pacifist ending and genocide run, mild swearing, a sadistic flower who has a habit of threatening to violently murder anybody who dares approach him, and an excess of horrible, horrible puns that are in no way entertaining. Unless you're Sans or Toriel.**

 **I write Frisk as a female because it's just easier for me and I like to take shortcuts.**

 **Takes place after the pacifist ending, after everybody's gone back up to the surface and everything's just peachy keen. Frisk is living with Toriel and the Skelebros, and they're all trying to adjust to life on the surface. With Flowey. Frisk has adopted Flowey as a houseplant of sorts, albeit a very cynical and _murdery_ one. He can't actually land an attack on anyone though. Breaking the barrier drained him of almost all his power, including most of the power he had before he absorbed any souls.**

 **That doesn't make him any more pleasant to live with.**

* * *

It started off as average a day as any other had been. The house woke up with Papyrus' daily exercises, which was mostly him repeating self-encouraging phrases at the top of his lungs while jogging in place. Nobody complained because Papyrus was far more reliable and effective than any alarm clock in the overworld.

Toriel woke up and headed down to the kitchen to make some pancakes for the rest of the household. Sans had gone back to sleep after his brother's routine, but managed to roll out of bed once he caught the sweet scent of food. Food was worth waking up for. Especially Toriel's food, home-cooked with good ol' fire magic.

Frisk was the last to make her way down to the breakfast table. In her arms, she carried a pot with a bitter little flower slumped over in it. She set the flowerpot in the middle of the table and poured a glass of water in the pot, letting it soak up into the soil and the flower's roots.

"Good morning, my child," Toriel greeted brightly, setting a plate of pancakes in front of Frisk. Frisk smiled widely and gave her a hug.

Sans grabbed a bottle of ketchup and started spreading some on his pancakes. Frisk stared for a moment at the skeleton's choice in pancake toppings. "What? You want some on your pancakes too?" He offered the ketchup to her, but she shook her head and grabbed the syrup instead. Sans shrugged. "To each their _bone_."

Toriel let out a chuckle. Papyrus glared at his brother. "SANS! It's too early in the morning to put up with your horrible puns!"

"Do jokes really matter? You're all gonna die anyway."

Papyrus shifted his gaze to the flower in the middle of the table. "Flowey! You know the rules! No death threats at the table!"

Flowey rolled his eyes. "I still don't understand why you don't just kill me."

"I don't either," Sans agreed, a bright blue spark glinting in his eye for just a moment.

Frisk shifted in her seat and nudged Sans. He ruffled her hair and went back to eating his ketchup-covered pancakes. Frisk offered a piece of her pancakes to the flower. He didn't react at all, continuing only to glare at her silently. "I. Don't. Eat."

Frisk sighed. Maybe tomorrow morning, she'd have better luck at getting him to open up.

Toriel's phone rang. "Hello? Yes, this is Ms. Toriel…A substitute? Yes, today's an in-service, so I think I'll be able to…alright, thank you. I'm happy to help." She hung up and turned to Frisk. "Frisk, they need a substitute over at the school across town. Since today's a day off for our school, they're asking me to fill in." She bent down to give the child a hug. "I know we were looking forward to spending the day together, but we can reschedule." Toriel walked over to the corner of the living room, where her textbooks and teaching notes were all stacked, and started packing up her materials.

Papyrus grinned even wider than usual. "HOORAY! I can finally get some quality time with my favorite human child! We shall play many games, like the one where the dastardly dog goes to jail!"

Sans leaned back in his chair. "Don't worry, Tori. Frisk will keep an eye on us to make sure we don't accidentally burn the house down, and we'll make sure Frisk doesn't die of _bonliness."_

"SANS!"

"Eh, what can I say? I'm a punny guy."

Papyrus retreated upstairs with a huff.

Toriel gave Frisk one last kiss on the cheek. "Be good, okay?"

"Don't worry Tori, you should be more worried about us behaving than Frisk," Sans said with a wink. Toriel gave him an amused smile as she walked out the door.

Frisk and Sans stared at each other for a moment.

"So, uh, what do you feel like doing?"

Frisk shrugged.

Sans sighed. He didn't spend much solo time with the kid. Sure, they hung out a lot, but it was normally around others, like Papyrus and Undyne and Alphys. Well, technically Flowey was in the room too, but he'd been more interested in sulking all day and threatening anybody who dared disrupt his brooding.

Seriously, what did Frisk like to do? Sure there was cooking, but none of them (except Toriel) could cook something decent without literally setting the house on fire. There was also the game that Papyrus had suggested, Monopoly. But he probably wasn't interested in coming downstairs right now, and those games were always more fun with Papyrus.

The kid seemed awfully attached to that flower, though.

An idea formed in Sans' head. "Hey, Frisk? You wanna come up with ways to get Flowey to have fun?" Sans grinned mischievously. He could swear he heard a low growl coming from the flower.

Frisk's eyes widened in excitement. "Like what?" she asked softly.

"Like maybe we could make him a friendship bracelet or something, and teach him how to play cards, and maybe even take him out for Nice Cream."

Frisk tapped her chin. None of the subtler ways she'd tried to befriend Flowey had helped. She'd tried sharing her food, reading him bedtime stories, and bringing him to school for show and tell. Perhaps it was time for a more aggressive approach…

The two approached the flower, identical grins on their faces and mischief in their eyes. In the half-second Flowey looked up, he knew he was in trouble.

"NO," He growled.

"Oh, yes," Sans retorted, a little bit too gleefully.

Flowey shook off his gloomy demeanor and started to violently flail around. "NONONONONOOOO!" Frisk gasped as Flowey's pot started to move off of the edge of the table and ran to catch him, but Sans appeared there first.

He dusted off the dirt that had fallen out of the pot and onto his jacket. "Teleportation magic has its perks, kiddo," He winked at Frisk. "Why don't you run upstairs and tell Papyrus we have a friendship challenge on our hands?"

Frisk nodded, excited, and ran upstairs to Papyrus's room.

Sans glared at Flowey. "You're gonna cooperate. And you're gonna like it. Frisk is going to have a good day here, or you're gonna have a bad time. _Do I make myself clear?_ "

Flowey smirked at the skeleton. "You wouldn't dare lay a bony finger on me. You promised them you wouldn't kill me, no matter how bitter and annoying I am."

"That doesn't mean I promised not to beat the living snot out of you if you go too far."

Neither of them wavered in their expressions. But inside, they were both cringing.

It was going to be a tough day for both of them.

* * *

 **Leave a review if you liked it and want to motivate me to write more! If you didn't like it, leave a review anyway! Tell me what I could've done better or what killed the story for you! I'm always open to ideas and criticism.**

 **Hopefully I'll actually get to posting another chapter. Even if it is weeks from now. I, like many others, am a busy college kid trying to survive.**


	2. Chapter 2

"What kind of flavor nice-cream can I get you folks today?"

Frisk glanced at the display. There were so many to choose from! Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, mint, snail… What to choose?

Finally, she committed to a flavor. "Can I have peanut butter nice-cream please?"

The nice-cream man smiled back at her. "Sure thing, kiddo! And how about for you two?" He turned to the other customers at the counter.

"I'll just have regular vanilla," Sans said. He always preferred plain vanilla over any of the other fancy flavors.

The nice-cream man glanced at the flowerpot in San's hands. "Is he going to want anything?"

Flowey grinned back and stared into the nice-cream man's eyes until he was visibly unsettled. "I'll take human-soul flavored nice-cream."

Sans glared at the flower. "Oho, buddy, you're really asking for a hard time, aren'tcha—"

"Well, we have nice-cream flavored with human soul substitute."

Sans gaped at the nice-cream man. Frisk paled, suddenly finding her peanut butter nice-cream not so appetizing.

The man shrugged. "What can I say? I have some customers with very interesting tastes."

Sans sighed. Frisk was visibly upset, and he doubted that staying to finish the nice-cream would help the situation. "I think we should head out. You ready to go, Frisk?"

Frisk nodded and grabbed the hand that wasn't holding Flowey's pot.

Flowey pouted. "Awww! I didn't even get my human-soul-flavored nice-cream! I thought you said this was supposed to be a fun bonding experience!"

"Well, you upset Frisk, so we're going to have to find another fun experience to bond over."

* * *

When they came home from visiting the nice-cream stand, Sans had whispered something to Frisk that made her light up. She'd run to her room to get something, and had returned half an hour later with a 'present' for Flowey. He'd hoped that it was something actually useful, like a knife he could stab with or the power of seven human souls so he could take over the world.

Instead, it had been a green and yellow hand-knit…something. He refused to call it a sweater, even though that's what Frisk insisted it was. It more resembled a sock with a hole at the top for his head to fit through, and it didn't even have openings in the sides for him to stick his leaves through. The girl must have been in cahoots with Toriel, creating something so itchy and vile-looking that would humiliate him and prevent him from moving on his own.

It was degrading.

At the moment, Frisk was sticking glittery stars on his pot. Sans was sitting on the couch, grinning as he watched Flowey wallow in misery.

That damned skeleton was sitting back and enjoying his misery.

Flowey wasn't angry at the skeleton for reveling in another's misery. He could understand just how much fun it was to revel in the agony of an enemy. No, he was angry because it was _his_ agony that someone was taking delight in. He was nobody's plaything.

"You filthy hypocrite," Flowey hissed, "You think it's sick that I enjoy inflicting pain on others, but you're just sitting on your bony ass, reveling in my humiliation."

Sans flashed him a smile. "I just think you look cute with that sweater on. Frisk did a good job on it." Frisk glanced over at Sans and beamed.

Flowey's frown deepened. "Do you know what else would be cute? The pile of dust that you're gonna be if you keep smiling at me like that."

Frisk rolled her eyes and continued to decorate the pot.

Flowey smirked at her. "It would also be cute to gouge out your eyes, Frisk, and violently shove them up your—"

"—Okay, Frisk, maybe we can try playing a game with him now? You've done such a great job at giving him a makeover."

Frisk added the last few stickers and nodded.

"Great. You wanna let Papyrus know that Flowey wants to play a game with us?"

She bounded upstairs.

"The only game I want to play is 'break the skeleton'."

"Too bad. We're playing Monopoly."

Flowey didn't bother gracing Sans with a reply.

After a moment or two of silence, they heard someone thundering down the stairs.

"I HEARD WE HAVE A FRIEND-MERGENCY!" Papyrus shouted, holding up a box as if it were a trophy. Frisk followed close behind him. "As a professional friend, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, shall aid in befriending you!"

Flowey glared at the taller skeleton. "You weak-minded simpleton. You really think you can break me to the point where I'll show genuine kindness to you?"

Papyrus barely heard a word Flowey said. He was too busy setting up the game. "The flower seems to be making progress! After all, he is wearing special clothes in preparation for our hang-out! Now, shall we pick our tokens?"

Frisk nodded.

"Alright! I shall be the car! Just like the one I like to drive around in!"

Sans picked up his token of choice and placed the top hat on the starting space.. "Hats off to you, kid," he said, gently nudging Frisk and ignoring Papyrus's groan.

Frisk glanced over the rest of the pieces and picked up the little dog. Papyrus's eyes widened. "HUMAN?! Why do you want to be that HORRIBLE little canine?!"

Frisk's face started to break out into a grin. "It's so doggone adorable."

Sans broke out into laughter. Papyrus glared at him. "SANS! YOU'RE TAINTING THE POOR CHILD WITH YOUR LOVE OF BAD PUNS!"

Frisk looked over at Flowey. "What piece do you want?"

He stared at the remaining pieces. "The cannon. So I can shoot all of you in your stupid faces and—"

"—He can be the thimble," Sans interrupted.

Flowey's face contorted into one of pure rage. "A thimble? A THIMBLE?! WHAT KIND OF A STUPID #$^#$%—"

Sans tossed a nearby blanket on top of the flower, muffling the various obscenities that were coming from him. "Well, I don't know why that triggered such a violent reaction, but maybe Flowey needs to go to time-out for a while?"

Frisk nodded slowly. She'd heard Flowey swear several times in the past, especially during his tantrums. That didn't make it any less rattling when it happened.

Sans carried the flower, still covered with the blanket, back upstairs and into one of the bedrooms, leaving Frisk and Papyrus to process what had happened.

"Well," Papyrus said, after a few moments of listening to the thumping and yelling that was happening upstairs, "I suppose Flowey's situation really is a friend-mergency. What should the next plan of attack be?"

Frisk shrugged half-heartedly. "I don't know. I thought I was making good progress. He complained about the sweater, but he didn't try ripping it to pieces. I don't know why he snapped like that."

Papyrus enveloped the girl in a well-deserved hug. "It's entirely possible he's just sad about something. Sometimes if someone is really sad on the inside, it comes out as anger. That happens to Undyne and Sans sometimes."

Frisk sat there, deep in thought. If that was true, then why was Flowey so sad?

 **A/N: Hello! So, I decided to add another chapter to this before finals (wish me luck. I'll need it) and I really hope you enjoy it! Thanks for all of you who followed, favorited, and reviewed. I'm really happy that I've made something worth reading. Once again, feel free to leave a review whether you liked it or not, let me know what you liked or didn't like and please send me ideas for puns. I'm absolutely horrible at making them up myself, but I love them too much to not try.**

 **I'm planning on adding another chapter either next weekend or the weekend after, hopefully sooner if I can. The next chapter is going to be a bit more somber than these other chapters, but I'm definitely going to work in a few lighter moments to balance it out.**

 **Also, question of the day: would you try human-soul flavored nice-cream if you knew it was just human-soul substitute?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, check this out! Two updates posted within a few hours of each other?! And after weeks of nothing, too! What does this mean? Basically, I started writing both of these at the same time. After I published the second chapter, I felt a wave of inspiration wash over me and motivate me to finish this one.**

 **And I'm too impatient to wait until** **next weekend to upload it, even though that means there's going to be another gap before the next update because I'm consistently inconsistent.**

* * *

A good half hour or so passed before the chaos upstairs died down. Papyrus and Frisk had put away Monopoly because the game was really only fun with at least three players, and had popped in one of the Mew-mew kissy cutie DVDs that Alphys had loaned to them. Sans came downstairs, a bit short of breath and his eyes still faintly glowing blue. He shuffled over to the couch and sat down nonchalantly, as if he hadn't just dealt with a very violent and angry flower's tantrum.

"So," he said, his voice still trembling slightly from all the yelling he'd done moments before, "This is the one where Mew-mew gets snail ice cream, right?"

Papyrus looked over at his brother. "No, it's the one where they're trying to befriend the ghost haunting the locker room so he doesn't terrorize everyone anymore."

Sans sighed. "Can't we watch a different one? I've had enough of evil malicious entities creeping on little girls."

Papyrus shook his head, pointing to Frisk. "She picked this episode specifically. I think she's trying to get ideas for how next to proceed with Flowey's reformation."

"Well, sorry to rain on your parade, but this isn't something that can be solved within the 22-minute time frame of a Mew-Mew Kissy Cutie episode, kiddo."

Frisk looked up at him with tears in her eyes, and immediately he regretted saying what he did. "Sorry, Frisk. I'm just really tired from dealing with that…thing." He reached over and gave her a hug. "Paps, when did Tori say she'd be back?"

Papyrus checked his phone. "About another ten minutes or so."

"Alright, then."

Sure enough, about ten minutes later, Toriel stumbled in, her bag and arms full with textbooks and schoolwork that needed to be graded. Sans got up and moved to help her get her stuff to her desk.

"WELCOME BACK, TORIEL!" Papyrus shouted, as Frisk ran to hug her.

Toriel finally got to her desk and set down everything she'd been carrying. "Hello again Frisk," she said, bending down to return the hug, "I trust you behaved today for Sans and Papyrus?"

Frisk nodded.

Toriel beamed. "I can't wait to hear about your adventures today. Papyrus, would you mind helping me with dinner?"

Papyrus jumped at the opportunity. "ABSOLUTELY, Toriel! What are we making tonight? Spaghetti? Pie? Spaghetti pie?"

Toriel snickered a bit. "Well, I was thinking we could make lasagna tonight. It's similar to spaghetti, but it has thicker noodles and it's layered. Almost like a—a spaghetti cake?"

"OH GOODY!" Papyrus gushed, quickly donning his "kiss the skeleton" apron and washing his hands in anticipation for prepping the food.

Toriel looked over at Sans and Frisk. "It's going to be a while before dinner's ready. Perhaps you two could set the table?"

Frisk nodded eagerly, already grabbing the forks and knives from the silverware drawer. Sans stood a little bit away from the kitchen, not wanting to get in anybody's way as there were now three people in the small space trying to do their own thing. He gently levitated four plates from the cupboard above Frisk's head, taking special care to not let them drop.

They had the table set in just two minutes, Sans using his levitation to set the dishes, and Frisk using her powers as a master of silverware to make sure everyone had a fork, knife, and napkin in the right place. Four plates, four forks, four knives, four glasses, four napkins. "Nice working with you, kiddo," Sans said, holding up a hand for a high-five. Frisk hesitated on the high-five. Something still felt like it was missing.

"Come on, kiddo, don't leave me hanging here."

Frisk looked up at Sans. "We need a place for Flowey to eat."

Sans's eye started twitching. "Flowey's in time-out, Frisk. Besides, he never eats anything anyway."

Frisk looked down at her feet. "Yeah, but it's still nice to let him know that we care enough about him to include him at the dinner table."

Sans bent down and looked at her right in the eye. "Frisk, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. I highly doubt we can do anything to 'reform' him. I don't want to be a downer, but Alphys herself has warned us that Flowey is literally incapable of feeling compassion and love towards others."

Frisk sighed. "I know."

Sans ruffled her hair. "Hey, I'm sorry for bringing you down. It's just that he's so angry all the time, and I don't want you to get hurt. It's not healthy to risk yourself to help someone who's only ever hurt you."

Frisk looked back at him. He'd been so patient in helping her with Flowey today, and she had no idea exactly what had happened upstairs between him and Flowey. Whatever it was, it had left Sans absolutely exhausted. Flowey had hurt Frisk, though not physically, over the course of his 'reformation', but Sans had been the one who had taken most of the damage.

Frisk was still just a kid, but she was wise enough to see that Sans had a point.

But she couldn't give up.

THEY couldn't give up.

Frisk smiled at Sans. "I'm not ready to totally give up, but maybe Flowey can stay in time-out for now."

Sans smiled back. "Alright. Let's go wash up for dinner. I think it might be almost ready."

They could hear a small explosion come from the kitchen. "TORIEL! The tomato sauce is ready! Half of it landed on the ceiling, though!"

Sans and Frisk started laughing. "Well, at least he didn't burn the sauce this time," Sans snickered. Frisk laughed even harder.

"It's alright Papyrus," Toriel replied, "That was just extra sauce for anyone who wants a bit more on their lasagna."

Sans grinned. "Too bad Flowey's in time-out. He seems to be the kind of fellow who's extra-saucy."

Toriel brought the lasagna out from the kitchen and smiled a bit at Sans's joke. "While I can't say I'm looking forward to hearing how exactly he landed himself in time-out, I am looking forward to hearing about what you've been up to today." She took a knife and started cutting the lasagna into squares. "I made half of it with snails and half without. Which half would everybody prefer?"

Papyrus yelled from the kitchen. "I'LL HAVE A PIECE OF THE SNAIL HALF!"

"Ditto," Sans agreed.

"I'll just have plain," Frisk mumbled.

Toriel dished out the lasagna. "That's three snail, and one plain. Papyrus? Are you done cleaning the sauce from the ceiling?"

Papyrus came in with a bowl half-filled with tomato sauce. The rest of the tomato sauce was on his apron, his face, and on the kitchen ceiling. "WHO WANTS EXTRA SAUCE?!"

Frisk raised her hand. Papyrus might accidentally make the sauce explode from time to time, but whatever remained in the pot usually tasted pretty good, though a bit sour.

Papyrus generously spread extra sauce over his and Frisk's plates. Sans took out a bottle of ketchup, seemingly from nowhere, and covered his lasagna with it.

The lasagna was good, better than any other lasagna Frisk had eaten. She figured it was the fire magic, nothing could beat food that was home-cooked with good ol' fire magic.

Toriel cleared her throat after the first few bites. "So, how exactly did Flowey land himself in time-out anyway?"

"He launched into a hissy fit 'bout an hour ago over Monopoly."

"Oh my, he lasted that long?" Toriel looked pleasantly surprised. "I'm genuinely impressed that it took him, what, five hours before he started acting up."

"Well, he'd been acting like a total pain in the tailbone during those five hours, but that's nothing new."

Frisk smiled. "I gave him the sweater we made for him, and he didn't swear at me or threaten me! He just started complaining."

Toriel's smile stiffened. "Oh? Well, I suppose that is a good thing, isn't it?"

"Yeah! Can you teach me how to make a hat next? He might like that even better."

"Of course, dear child."

* * *

After dinner, everybody had gone off to do their own thing. Papyrus left to go train at the gym with Undyne, Toriel sat herself at her desk to grade and sort through schoolwork, and Sans retreated upstairs to nap for five hours.

Frisk went upstairs to retrieve Flowey from the closet that served as his time-out room.

"Human," the flower merely stated, with only a hint of disdain. He was secretly grateful that someone had bothered to retrieve him, he was starting to wilt and could really use some water and light, neither of which had been available in the closet. Not that he'd ever express gratitude to anybody, especially the human.

Frisk could see that Flowey was slightly wilting and took him back to her room and put him on the windowsill. The window was locked and thick enough so that he couldn't open it or break it, and she always kept cushions under her sill in case he had the bright idea to try to escape. Frisk took her little watering can and filled it in the bathroom, and gave Flowey some fresh water. Flowey didn't thank her. He never did, and she never expected him to. But he didn't insult or threaten her.

Frisk set down the watering can and sat on her bed, facing Flowey. The two stared at each other in silence.

Frisk spoke first. "Why are you so mean to everybody? I know you can be better than that, Asriel."

Flowey glared at her. "I'm not Asriel anymore. I never will be again."

"Why not?"

"Because Asriel is dead."

Frisk narrowed her eyes. "Who broke the barrier, then? Who'd I come back for? Who are you?"

"I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower." He smiled at her with empty eyes.

She screamed into her pillow. Why did he always do this? Every evening, she tried to talk with him. Every evening, she tried to use words to pull him back from whatever dark place he was at. He always seemed to act less violent whenever it was just the two of them in the evenings, and she always insisted on calling him by his real name, Asriel. But only when it was just them.

But he always resisted like this, refusing to answer to his true name. This hurt Frisk more than any of the threats and insults he'd throw her way.

"Why do you keep doing this?!"

Flowey kept staring at her. "Wouldn't you like to know. You know very well why I hate you so much, Chara."

Chills ran down Frisk's spine.

"Goodnight, Asriel," Frisk said, wrapping a light blanket around Flowey. It was early November, and she didn't want him to get too cold from being so close to the window.

"Goodnight, Chara," Flowey grinned gleefully. His eyes were practically glowing.

Flowey left her alone for the rest of the evening, either actually sleeping or putting on a very convincing show of it.

When Frisk finally lay down for bed, she found that sleep was almost impossible. The other voice in her head kept talking to her, trying to fill her with more determination for the next day.

 _I don't know how much longer I can do this._

 _ **Come on, Frisk! Stay determined! We'll get there soon. I can feel it.**_

 _I know, but that doesn't make it hurt any less._

 _ **Please. He's my best friend. I can't just give up on him.**_

 _But he hates us! Why does he hate us?!_

…

 _Chara?_

 _ **We'll think of something, tomorrow at school. School's boring, anyways.**_

 _Chara, I need to actually pay attention tomorrow. I've been falling behind, and though I don't want to blame it on you it's a lot easier to focus when you aren't interrupting my thoughts every other minute._

 _ **Psssh. The underground was way more fun than fourth grade.**_

 _Mom'll notice that something's up if I keep falling behind._

 _ **Fine. We'll think of ideas**_ _ **after**_ _ **school, then.**_

 _Thanks. Can we go to bed now? I'm really tired, and I have to get up early tomorrow._

 _ **Okay. G'night, Frisk.**_

 _Night, Chara._

* * *

 **My Frisk doesn't talk out loud a whole lot, but part of it's because she has so much going on in her head, including dialogue with the spirit of another kid who's soul is somehow connected to hers. Yes, one of the many inspirations for this story was the idea of narrator Chara in Pacifist mode, providing most of the flavor text and learning about mercy alongside Frisk. It's heavily implied in the game that Chara's soul was similar to Frisk's (both were red, both had the unique gift of determination, both may have had the ability to save and load) and the narrator Chara theory states that their souls are not only similar, but Chara's is somehow bound to Frisk's.**

 **Chara is definitely the main reason why Frisk keeps trying to reach Flowey/Asriel, though Frisk herself has hope that Flowey is capable of being good.**

 **Once again, thanks to everyone who's favorited, followed, and reviewed! You guys keep me motivated to actually see this story through! I'm working on the next chapter, but I don't know when I'm going to have it done. I'm trying to get used to writing the internal dialogue at the same time that external events are happening. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that Chara is a very impatient soul who cares little for Frisk's schoolwork.**

 **Feel free to leave a review whether you liked it or not! Let me know what you liked or didn't like, and please leave me ideas for horrible jokes. I did a better job (I think) with the jokes in this and the previous chapter than I did with chapter one, and I'm always trying to fit a few of them in just to lighten the mood. Especially when I'm writing Sans and Toriel. If you didn't get the food-related joke in this chapter, here's a few synonyms for "saucy": disrespectful, bold, irreverent. Describes Flowey pretty well, doesn't it?**

 **Speaking of sauce, here's the question of the day: How would you have your lasagna? With snails, ketchup, Papyrus's tomato sauce (freshly scraped from the ceiling) or nothing extra?**


	4. Chapter 4

_**You should make the hat with green and yellow stripes too, he likes those.**_

Frisk sighed in annoyance. Chara had not honored his promise to leave her alone during the school day. He'd been quiet during science and english, but then math class began, and he took the opportunity to raid her thoughts right when she was trying the hardest to pay attention.

 _You said you'd leave me alone at school._

 _ **But math is so booooring! And it's not like you were actually going to pay attention anyway. Might as well be productive about day-dreaming, huh?**_

Chara had a really bad habit of distracting Frisk as he pleased, especially since there was little she could do about it. After all, if she went up to the teacher and said, "There's a ghostly boy in my head who's distracting me and he won't shut up," she'd be more likely to get referred to a psychiatrist.

Not that a psychiatrist would even help. An exorcist, maybe. But not a psychiatrist. She was possessed, in a way. Not delusional.

 _Why are you so annoying?_

 _ **Why do you ask so many questions?**_

 _If you aren't going to leave me alone, then you can at least have the decency to answer my questions. Like why Flowey hates us?_

…

 _Chara! I'm serious! Papyrus says he thinks Flowey's so bitter because he's really sad about something. Do you know what he could be sad about?_

…

 _Okay. I'm going to assume you're leaving me alone now and go back to math—_

 _ **No! Wait! Maybe we can take him out on a picnic or something!**_

 _What?_

 _ **Seriously. He hasn't really had a chance to see much of the overworld, has he? And he likes pie as much as he likes things with stripes. Pie and nature. He'll love that!**_

 _I don't know, he doesn't really eat anything—_

"Frisk! Could you please tell us what the next step of the problem is?"

Frisk snapped back to reality and glanced up at the board. "Uh, you—you add the three?"

The teacher shook her head. "Not yet. You have to multiply by two and then add the three. Remember the order of operations! Multiplication and division come first, then addition and subtraction."

Frisk nodded. Right. Multiply first, then add. Order of operations. Multiply first, then—

 _ **Hello?! I'm still here.**_

 _Yeah, I noticed, Mr. Subtle._

Frisk almost rolled her eyes in frustration, but she didn't want anyone to be under the impression that she was frustrated at her teacher when the opposite was true.

 _ **Anyway, as I was saying about stripes, he really likes those, especially yellow and green stripes, those have always been our favorite colors. Also, he really does still love Mom's pie. I guess that's why he usually steals the pieces of pie she leaves in your room for your midnight snack? He likes cinnamon over butterscotch, though, especially after the, um, incident that happened with Dad…**_

 _Chara? Can you please just leave me alone right now? I promise I'll talk with you more later, but right now…_

… _ **Alright, fine. I get it. You don't want me around anymore.**_

 _No, just…Not now._

 _ **Okay. See you later.**_

 _Thanks._

* * *

Frisk came into her room with a large bag slung over her shoulder.

Flowey eyed it suspiciously. Was the human finally getting sick of him? Was she going to take his advice and murder him and hide his corpse in the bag? Or had she already killed someone else, like Sans, or a stupid human, and was going to ask him for advice on how to dispose of the body? He liked that idea. Maybe Frisk was trying to get interested in his hobbies to get along with him better—oh, that would be rich! She was trying so hard to be so good and to 'save his soul' and all that crap, but in the process was becoming just as murderous and cold-blooded as he. Oh, the irony! The sweet, sweet irony!

Wait, there was some sort of smell coming from the bag—human corpses didn't smell like cinnamon, did they?

His eyes widened. No, no she wouldn't try to—NO! She wouldn't stoop so low as to bribe him with pie. And he wouldn't be so stupid as to fall for it.

No matter how delicious it smelled.

He grinned at her, waggling his eyebrows. "Don't even bother, Frisk. I'm not stupid enough to fall for your bribery."

Frisk stumbled a bit trying to pick Flowey up and shifted in trying to balance his weight with the bag's, but then got to a good position and started walking.

Flowey started to panic on the inside.

"Y-Yeah! I know all your stupid tricks, _Chara._ You can't fool me! You'll never be able to fool me."

Frisk ignored him.

"W-Where are you taking me?" Inside Frisk's head, Chara snickered. Flowey was failing miserably at hiding his anxiety.

Frisk smiled. "Outside."

Whatever composure Flowey had shattered immediately. "OUTSIDE?! NO NO NO NO NO NO…." Instead of flailing around like he normally would if he was upset like this, he actually shrank back into his pot and stared up at Frisk with wide eyes. "Oh, nononono! There are…BEES outside! HUGE ones! Ones that crawl all over you and drive you crazy with their incessant buzzing and STING your faces!"

Chara broke out laughing. Frisk couldn't help but gush at how cute Flowey looked, so afraid and vulnerable and for once, not threatening or vicious at all.

"Don't worry, it's too cold outside for bees this time of the year," Frisk giggled.

Flowey didn't answer. He just kept whimpering.

 _ **I told you he was a huge crybaby.**_

Frisk rolled her eyes and attempted to make her way downstairs. Easier said than done, as she was still struggling to carry the flower and the heavy bag.

"Just take it step by step," she whispered to herself.

"Step.

By.

Ste—ARGH!"

Frisk could feel herself falling and shut her eyes, bracing for the inevitable pain. Falling was terrifying, especially if you were falling down the stairs with a full load of stuff. She could feel her heart racing. Wow, this moment was really feeling strange. She'd fallen down loads of times before, including when she'd fallen down Mt. Ebott. It always felt like forever in a moment, but never quite like this.

 _ **Hey, we've been falling for a long time.**_

Her eyes snapped open, and she realized she was floating in a blue aura. Sans released his magical hold on her and gently placed Frisk and her stuff down at the bottom of the stairs. "Going on a _trip,_ eh? Maybe you should take the elevator next time," he said with a wink.

Frisk nodded and scurried to grab Flowey and the bag. Sans glanced over at the flower.

"So, what're you up to, Frisk?"

Frisk shrugged nonchalantly. "Just…Y'know. Stuff."

Sans would've raised an eyebrow, if he had any. "Stuff with Flowey?"

"Um, yes, kind of."

He sighed and patted her head. "Alright, kiddo. I don't like what you're doing, but I trust you, ok? Please be back before Tori gets home. I don't want to have to explain to her just why you weren't back in time for dinner."

Frisk grinned and attempted to hug him with her arms full. "Thanks, Sans! I promise I'll be back by then!"

"Alright. Stay safe, kiddo!"

* * *

Frisk found a lovely little spot in the neighborhood park. It was right next to a bunch of half-dead trees that really set a gloomy atmosphere, but had a great view of the late-autumn sun as it started to set.

She spread out the blanket on the ground—bright green with blue squares, one that Chara insisted she bring. She didn't know why, but she didn't question him.

He knew Asriel best, after all.

Flowey kept looking around at everything. "So, that big ball of fire in the sky is the sun? Aren't you humans afraid of it crashing into earth and setting it all on fire?"

Frisk shook her head. "No, that's not going to happen for about a bajillion more years, after all of humanity and life here has died off."

"Why are these trees all dead?"

"It's almost winter. This always happens when it's turning from fall to winter. If you want to, we can come back in the springtime when they're in full bloom."

"No, I like them better like this."

Flowey kept drinking it all in. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself.

Almost.

Frisk reached into her bag and pulled out the food she'd stashed. Snail casserole, some iced sea tea, and—of course—butterscotch-cinnamon pie. She was especially happy that the pie had survived its trip down the stairs.

Flowey finally looked over at the array Frisk had spread out. She was sitting there, smiling at him. Almost as if she expected something from him. Maybe she really was, but he knew she knew better than to seriously expect anything like a compliment or a sign of gratitude from him.

The silence finally got to him. "What are you staring at?"

"You really do look cute in your little sweater when you aren't complaining about it."

He scoffed. Frisk would swear she saw him blushing. "I'm only wearing this because it's cold outside and you had the bright idea to drag me out here."

Chara snickered.

 _ **Yeah, right. Ever since you put it on him, he hasn't demanded once that you take it off of him.**_

Frisk offered him a slice of pie. "I know you don't eat, but I was wondering if you wanted some anyway."

He eyeballed the piece. "What do you want?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," he huffed, "that you must be brain-dead or something if you genuinely think that I'm going to let myself be toyed with like this."

Frisk sighed. "There's nothing you can give me Flowey. The only thing I want from you is your friendship, but since everybody insists that you can't give it to me, then there's nothing I could ask for from you."

Flowey blinked. "Oh. Why'd you get me pie then?"

"Because I'm stupid enough to do things just out of niceness."

Flowey stared at the pie again. "Well, if you're really that stupid, I guess I can take advantage of your stupidity and take the pie."

Sure enough, Flowey actually ate the pie. It was the first piece of actual food that he'd eaten willingly in front of Frisk.

"I still hate you," he said, after finishing his last mouthful.

Frisk smiled. "I can live with that."

* * *

 **A/N Flowey is such a tsundere. Maybe that's why Omega Flowey's arm-tentacle-things are cacti? They are the most tsundere of plants, after all.**

 **I'm on to your symbolism, Toby!**

 **I don't know when the next update will be. Could be in a few days, could be in a few weeks. Like Frisk, I need to focus on my schoolwork, especially since finals are next week.**

 **When I started this, I thought it was going to be insanely hard to actually commit to writing more chapters. Amazingly, it's been getting easier and easier to write, but I hope the quality is consistent. Free-writing is one of the ways I tend to relieve stress, and I've been under a lot more than usual in the past several days. I apologize if the pacing seems a bit too slow or too rushed, but I'm not used to writing multi-chap stories and I'm mostly just making it up as I go along, even though I have a clear idea of what direction I want to take it in.**

 **Thank you, allen Vth, for suggesting a picnic! It would've taken much longer for me to finish this chapter without that idea :) ****Thanks to everybody who's reading and reviewing. It's nice to know that y'all are really enjoying this.**

 **Question of the day (or week, or however long it's going to take before another update): Do you think it'd be kind of cool or annoying as heck to have someone like Chara in your head?**


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